Appendix D
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON THE WORKSHOP SPEAKERS
SHARON DUNWOODY is Evjue-Bascom Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also serves as chair of academic programs for the University's Institute for Environmental Studies and as head of the Center for Environmental Communication and Education Studies (CECES). Dr. Dunwoody studies the role of the mass media in public understanding of science and has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters and books on the topic. She is a member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science and Technology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Dunwoody has served on numerous NRC committees and boards including the Board on Radiation Effects Research, Communications Advisory Committee, Commission on Life Sciences, Committee on Exposure of American People to I-131 from Nevada Atomic Bomb Tests: Implications for Public Health. She earned her Ph.D. in mass communication at Indiana University before moving to University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981.
JULIE DOWNS is research scientist in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests include how social influences affect decision-making and how people can make better decisions by understanding the nature of these influences. One goal
of her research is to implement interventions aimed at helping people make better decisions in the face of often unseen social influences. Dr. Downs earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University.
WILLIAM R. FREUDENBURG is Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a specialist on the human aspects of risk assessment and risk management and has done extensive research on nuclear and other energy technologies. He has served as chair of Section K (social, economic, and political sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on several NRC committees and federal advisory committees relating to energy and waste management issues. He was the first congressional fellow from the American Sociological Association to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. Freudenburg received his Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University in 1979.
DEIRDRE LAWRENCE is an epidemiologist in the Risk Factor Monitoring and Methods Branch in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Her current research interests include applying surveillance, statistical and epidemiologic research concepts to monitor trends of tobacco use in the United States, and analyzing disparities in predictors and patterns of cancer-related risk factors. At NCI, her current responsibilities include planning, initiating, coordinating, and conducting research related to the surveillance of tobacco use, particularly among U.S. population subgroups. In addition, Dr. Lawrence is a member of the NCI Special Studies Institutional Review Board (IRB), and she reviews and contributes to technical reports and conference planning activities relevant to improving tobacco surveillance and reducing cancer-related health disparities. Dr. Lawrence earned her Ph.D. in toxicology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.
SUSANNA HORNIG PRIEST is director of research for the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina. Formerly, she served as associate professor and director of the Texas A&M University M.S. Program in Science and Technology Journalism. She is the author of a book, A Grain of Truth, and a number of other published studies of the relationship between media coverage, public opinion formation, and public policy development for biotechnology. In collaboration with colleagues across Europe and North America, she has also been involved in recent years in a major comparative study of how these dynam-
ics “play out” across national boundaries. Dr. Priest earned a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Washington.
DAVID ROPEIK is director of risk communication at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Mr. Ropeik is responsible for communicating the center’s approach of keeping risk in perspective to the press, policy makers, and the public. He teaches risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a commentator on risk issues for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program. He has written extensively on risk perception and risk communication. He has lectured on these topics at the White House and to numerous government, corporate, and consumer groups worldwide. He served for 9 years on the Board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Mr. Ropeik has been a visiting lecturer in journalism at Boston University and Tufts University. He received a B.A. in journalism in 1972 and an M.A. in journalism in 1973 from Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism.
CRAIG TRUMBO is associate research professor in the Department of Family Practice, College of Medicine, at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on public understanding of science and health-risk communication. He has programs of research on news media representation of climate change, risk communication, and cancer epidemiology, and information effects on water conservation behavior. His research has received nearly $1 million in support from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy. His work has been published in a range of journals, including Journalism and Communication Monographs, Journal of Communication, The Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Science Communication, Public Understanding of Science, Water Resources Research, Risk Analysis, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Dr. Trumbo holds an M.S. (1993) in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. (1997) in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
KASISOMAYAJULA VISWANATH is associate professor of society, human development, and health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Formerly, he was the acting associate director of the Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute. He
came to the National Cancer Institute from Ohio State University, where he was a tenured faculty member in the School of Journalism and Communication with an adjunct appointment in the School of Public Health. Dr. Viswanath was also a center scholar with Ohio State's Center for Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evaluation Studies. His research interest is in using a macro-social approach to the study of communication, his most recent work focusing on mass communication and social change and health communication in national and international contexts with particular focus on communication inequities and disparities. Dr. Viswanath has published on such topics as communication and health campaigns, diffusion of new communication technologies, international communication, and women and media in different journals, including Gazette, Media Culture and Society, Health Communication, Journalism Quarterly, Communication Research, American Behavioral Scientist, Health Education Research, and chapters in a number of books. He has also co-edited the book Mass Media, Social Control and Social Change with David Demers. Dr. Viswanath received his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota.
